Bay County closes in on budget

Wednesday

Sep 12, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 12, 2012 at 6:04 PM

PANAMA CITY — The last opportunity for public comment on Bay County’s fiscal year 2013 budget — which includes cuts to road maintenance, personnel and the Sheriff’s Office — will be at 5:01 p.m. Thursday in the Bay County Government Center.

FELICIA KITZMILLER

Faced with a loss of $1.6 million in ad valorem revenue and a sustained hemorrhage of state revenue-sharing funds, Bay County commissioners have opted to use a combination of cost cutting and emergency funds to balance the budget for the upcoming year.

The tentative budget of $232 million received cursory approval from commissioners at a budget hearing Sept. 4 when the millage rate was set at 3.65, with a mosquito control district millage of 0.1525 and municipal service tax unit of 1 mill for fire service. One mill equates to $1 of tax for every $1,000 of value.

The tax rate is identical to last year, despite a 3.3 percent decrease in property values. To make up for lost revenue, Bay County is taking $2 million from a long-standing emergency fund to plug this year’s budget and replenish cash on hand. For the last five years, Bay County has trimmed the budget to reflect the loss of ad valorem revenue; they’ve absorbed the loss in other revenue streams by using cash reserves, Commissioner Mike Thomas said.

The ability to do that came to an end this year. At the end of fiscal year 2012, Budget Officer Ashley Stukey is projecting a cash reserve of $4 million. Without drawing on emergency funds or realizing budget reductions from constitutional officers, there would be about $1.2 million left in the cash reserve.

With the cuts and the infusion of emergency funds, Stukey is projecting a cash reserve of about $3 million.

The emergency fund’s primary purpose was hurricane response, but the need to have that much money on hand is reduced by improvements at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Thomas said.

“It used to take forever for FEMA to start kicking in,” he said. “They are putting out money a lot faster. … To keep it there, or to keep a lot of it there, would mean raising taxes or cutting the budget more.”

The county’s enterprise funds, including solid waste and water, carry considerable cash balances that could be tapped in the event of an emergency not addressed by FEMA, Thomas said.

Commissioners have cut $774,000 from this year’s budget — largely by eliminating positions, including former Assistant County Manager Bob Majka’s job. Majka left Bay County to become the city manager of Cocoa Beach last week. Several dozen positions have been eliminated from the county budget over the last several years.

A $900,000 road improvement allocation from the general fund also was axed this year.

Commissioners have instructed constitutional officers to trim their budgets by 3.3 percent of the ad valorem revenue. Sheriff Frank McKeithen will have the largest reduction — $759,000 for his office and the jail — of the constitutional officers.

McKeithen’s office said the sheriff will not comment on the budget until it is finalized, but in the past McKeithen has suggested furloughs could be utilized to make up for the shortfall. McKeithen used furloughs to balance his budget and avoid layoffs in fiscal year 2011.